To a stranger, he’s quirky, but to those who know the famed Mr. Toilet, he’s the leader of the global sanitation revolution. He grew up in the slums of Singapore with a bucket for a toilet and knows the agonies first hand of what it’s like to go through life without having a proper loo.

• Saturday, April 27 at 5:45 PM — Scotiabank Theatre 3
• Sunday, April 28 1:00 PM — Isabel Bader Theatre
• Saturday, May 4 8:30 PM — Fox Theatre

The Guardian of Memory, directed by Marcela Arteaga (2017 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee) — World Premiere

The Juarez Valley, a region once known for cotton production, is now nothing more than burned down houses, empty towns, and memories. Carlos Spector, an immigration lawyer born in El Paso, TX, fights to obtain political asylum for Mexicans fleeing from violence. This is the story of Mexican men, women, and children seeking a respite from their tragedies by heading to their neighboring country, the US. It is also a story about the kindness and hope that still exists in people who have gone through hell, and about Carlos Spector’s tireless efforts to keep memory alive

• Sunday, April 28 at 8:15 PM — TIFF Bell Lightbox 3
• Tuesday, April 30 at 12:45 PM — Scotiabank Theatre 8
• Saturday, May 4 at 1:00 PM — TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

Buddha In Africa, directed by Nicole Schafer — World Premiere

In a Chinese Buddhist orphanage in Africa, the film follows Enock Alu, a Malawian boy from a rural village growing up between the contrasting worlds of his traditional African culture and the strict discipline of the Confucian, Buddhist value system of the Chinese. Once the star performer with dreams of becoming a martial arts hero like Jet Li, Enock, in his final year at school, has to make some tough decisions about his future and finds himself torn between returning to his relatives in the village or going abroad to study in China. Against the backdrop of China’s expanding global influence, the film evokes some of the tensions surrounding the growing relationship between China and Africa.

• Saturday, April 27 at 6:00 PM — TIFF Bell Lightbox 3
• Monday, April 29 at 1:00 PM — Scotiabank Theatre 8
• Sunday, May 5 at 10:15 AM — Scotiabank Theatre

One Child Nation (2017 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee), directed by Nanfu Wang (also a 2018 Chicken & Egg Award recipient) and Jialing Zhang

How much control does a person have over their own life? In China, state control begins before a child is even born.

• Wednesday, May 1 at 6:30 PM — Isabel Bader Theatre
• Friday, May 3 at 1:00 PM — TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

Always In Season (2018 (Egg)celerator Lab), directed by Jacqueline Olive

When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014, his mother’s search for justice and reconciliation begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present.

• Sunday, April 28 at 6:15 PM — Hart House Theatre
• Tuesday, April 30 at 12:45 PM — TIFF Bell Lightbox 2 
• Saturday, May 4 at 6:30 PM — Hart House Theatre

American Factory, directed by Julia Reichert (2016 Chicken & Egg Award recipient) and Steve Bognar*

Dizzying, hilarious and devastating, this tale of two factories makes for a landmark story of workplace anxiety. Directors Reichert and Bognar have spent a decade documenting the plight of Ohio’s factory workers, and their dedication pays off when they are given astonishing access to Fuyao, a Chinese auto glass manufacturer, as it revives a shuttered General Motors plant in Dayton.

• Tuesday, April 30 at 6:00 PM — Isabel Bader Theatre
• Thursday, May 2 at 10:30 AM — TIFF Bell Lightbox 1
• Saturday, May 4 at 6:00 PM — Isabel Bader Theatre
• Sunday, May 5 at 4:15 PM — TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

In addition to American Factory, the Outstanding Achievement Retrospective of Julia Reichert’s work which will screen throughout the festival will include Growing Up Female, considered the first feature documentary of the modern women’s movement; Union Maids, in which women look back on the Depression-era trade unionist crusade; and A Lion in the House, the Emmy-winning film which follows five children battling cancer over the course of six years, as well as others.